Lou Malnati's buys River North building where it runs a restaurant

A venture led by the Lou Malnati's pizza chain paid $3 million for a three-story River North building where it runs a restaurant, county records show. A spokeswoman for Northbrook-based Malnati Organization Inc. said the pizzeria wanted to expand the restaurant to two full floors. County records show a trust whose beneficiaries include Chicago-based Development Resources Inc. sold the property at 439 N. Wells St. Development Resources Founder James DeRose declined to comment.

Mortgage

The new owner of the Belden-Stratford apartments borrowed $49 million on the 297-unit building in Lincoln Park. New Jersey-based Prudential Real Estate Investors took out the loan Feb. 11 from an affiliate of McLean, Va.-based HSBC Bank USA N.A., two months after paying $86.8 million for the 16-story building at 2300 N. Lincoln Park West. A Prudential executive did not return a call.

Foreclosure

North Community Bank sued the venture that owns an 8,600-square-foot retail property at 5360 W. Division St. in Chicago's North Austin neighborhood. The foreclosure suit relates to a $1.2 million loan the property owner took out in 2006 from Citizens Community Bank, Cook County records show. Citizens was later merged into North Community by the parent company of both lenders, Chicago-based Metropolitan Bank Group Inc., the records show. One member of the property's ownership group, Orlando, Fla.-based investor named Hayssam Elkoussa, said attracting tenants to the building has proven difficult because of to crime in the area. Metropolitan Bank Group did not return a call.

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